health

Diagnosis To diagnose vitiligo, the doctor may ask about the person’s
symptoms, whether the person has an immune system disorder, and whether
vitiligo runs in the person’s family. The doctor also may suggest various tests
to rule out other medical problems that can cause light skin patches.

Treatment Vitiligo does not always need treatment. For some people
with light skin, simply avoiding a suntan on areas of normal skin is
enough to make the patches of vitiligo almost unnoticeable. Other people
use makeup, skin dyes, or self-tanning products to cover up the vitiligo.
Self-tanning products are creams that give the skin a tan color, but not a
true tan. The color tends to wear off after a few days. These strategies do
not change the condition, but they can make the vitiligo less noticeable.
In children, vitiligo usually is just covered up.
In adults, if covering up the vitiligo is not enough, a medical treatment
may be tried, although results often cannot be seen for 6 to 18
months. The choice of treatment depends on the person’s wishes, how
many white patches the person has, and how widespread the patches are.
Not every treatment works for every person. There are several choices:

• Corticosteroid (kor-ti-ko-STEER-oid) creams can be applied to
  the skin and sometimes can return color to small areas of vitiligo.
  
• Psoralen (SOR-a-len) and ultraviolet* therapy entails taking medication
  by mouth or applied to the skin and then exposing the light
  patches of skin to ultraviolet A light from a special lamp. Ultraviolet
  A is the part of sunlight that can cause the skin to tan, and psoralens
  are substances that react with ultraviolet light to darken the skin.
  
• Skin grafting is an operation that involves moving skin from normal
  areas to white patches. It is useful only for a small number of
  people with vitiligo.
  
• Depigmentation therapy involves using medication to fade the
  normal skin to match the whitened areas of vitiligo.